Judge Darlene Byrne sat on the bench one day in November hearing the 28th case of the day on her Child Protective Services docket. The young woman before her was pregnant with her ninth child and wanted to reunite with her other eight children who were scattered among various homes.

The otherwise patient and soft-spoken judge raised her voice.

“These children did not make this mess; the adults in this room made this mess,” Byrne said to the mother, whose name has been withheld to protect her and her children’s identities. “Love does not feed or shelter or clothe ...

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I would expect to see the comments that began this story from the Eugenics Lobby / Virtual Lynch Mob that gathers on news website comment boards. It is disturbing and surprising to read these comments from a judge. It is just as disturbing, but no less surprising, to read them in a Texas Tribune story without the slightest effort to include a dissenting view. That is Emily Ramshaw’s trademark, and since I see she’s now deputy editor, presumably reporters won’t have any choice in the matter.

Did this mother beat her children? Did she rape them? Did she lock them in closets? If so, there’s no mention of it in the story. Apparently this mother’s only crime is to be poor and to bear more children than the judge deems acceptable.

Presumably the judge, and Ms. Ramshaw, would be thrilled at what happened to this family, too: http://bit.ly/rizFvw

While the right wing desperately craves a means test for child bearing, that is not yet the law in the United States.

Love alone is not enough, few things are worse for a child than the loveless life of being bounced from foster home to foster home. To do that to a child rather than provide minimal financial help to a family is state-sanctioned child abuse.

When a child is needlessly thrown into foster care, he loses not only mom and dad but often brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, teachers, friends and classmates. For a young enough child it can be an experience akin to a kidnapping. Other children feel they must have done something terribly wrong and now they are being punished. One study of foster care “alumni” found they had twice the rate of post-traumatic stress disorder of Gulf War veterans and only 20 percent could be said to be “doing well.

Two more studies, of 15,000 cases, are even more devastating. Those studies found that even maltreated children left in their own homes with little or no help fared better, on average, than comparably-maltreated children placed in foster care. And in this case, you don’t establish that the children were maltreated at all, you establish only that they are poor.

All that harm can occur even when the foster home is a good one. The majority are. But the rate of abuse in foster care is far higher than generally realized and far higher than in the general population. That same alumni study found that one-third of foster children said they’d been abused by a foster parent or another adult in a foster home. (The study didn’t even ask about one of the most common forms of abuse in foster care, foster children abusing each other). Switching to orphanages won’t help -- the record of institutions is even worse.

So do the math. Eight children in foster homes, almost certainly separated from each other. What are the odds none of them will come out of this experience *without* being abused.

For those interested in what the Tribune left out, the comment above continues at the Tribune website (at least as long as they allow it to stay) -Richard Wexler, Executive Director, National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, www.nccpr.org

While I would expect to see the comments that began this story from the Eugenics Lobby / Virtual Lynch Mob that gathers on news website comment boards. It is disturbing and surprising to read these comments from a judge. It is just as disturbing, but no less surprising, to read them in a Texas Tribune story without the slightest effort to include a dissenting view.

For those interested in such dissent, this comment continues at the Tribune website (for as long as the editors allow it to stay)

What the ' right wing' desperately craves is forcing people to accept personal responsibility and remove the incentives for people to do absolutely nothing to better their lots in life and continue to produce children for perceived added welfare value. Are stories like this intended to cause sleepless nights and personal guilt for having ramen noddles to eat while others have nothing? The social safety nets of the New Deal lead to the creation of the welfare state and institutional and generational slavery of the Great Society. Maybe in another 40 years or so the realization will set in that the present course of action and continual doubling down on failed policies will never produce the results hoped for.

Just in Dallas County alone the child abuse cases have sky rocketed more than 40%!! Can you imagine how much in Texas alone. People are afraid of THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY AND PROTECTIVE SERVICES/CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES (" Family Police Department") due to retaliation. So we are taught do not get involved or you will get it. Children are more likely to get abused in C.P.S. OR THE T.D.F.P.S. care than in general public JUST BECAUSE YOU WEAR A BADGE DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE A GOOD PERSON!!! State employees in these departments are required to have a degree in social work or in any subject, be desperate for a job and the state be desperate to hire employees. Without even raising a kid, worked in a license center, ran a daycare and may not even like children. BUT, because the state needed a position filled they took that bad person in. Nobody will investigate these departments due to being afraid of them. Not even our own judicial system will get involved they are afraid also. Our children will suffer because of these departments until we can get more protection to the people who really do love the children and have a concern and can voice that concern without getting abused and bullied by these bad public servants.Anyone know someone in our legislative system, who is not afraid of these bad public servants who wear a badge and mask themselves as a good person. Let me know, I would like to join that good fight in protecting our children.